How to do SEO analysis of a website

SEO analysis starts with a technical audit using tools like Screaming Frog, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to crawl the site and identify crawlability issues, broken links, duplicate content, and missing meta tags. Check for mobile responsiveness since Google's mobile-first indexing makes this non-negotiable, and verify Core Web Vitals through Google PageSpeed Insights or your preferred monitoring tool. Look at the XML sitemap and robots.txt file to ensure search engines can access what you want indexed. Run the site through Google Search Console to see crawl errors, coverage issues, and Security & Manual Actions that might be suppressing rankings.

On-page analysis requires evaluating how pages target keywords and whether that targeting actually makes sense for search intent. Review the primary keywords each page ranks for in Google Search Console or your analytics, then audit whether the title tag, H1, and body content genuinely address what searchers want. Check whether pages suffer from keyword cannibalization where multiple URLs compete for the same term, and identify thin or duplicate content that dilutes authority. Assess heading structure to ensure H2s and H3s logically organize content, not just sprinkled for SEO. Look at internal linking patterns—whether high-authority pages link to conversion-focused pages, and whether orphaned pages lack internal links from relevant sources.

The competitive analysis layer shows you what's actually winning in the rankings. For your target keywords, analyze the top 10 results' word count, content structure, backlink profiles, and topical coverage using Ahrefs or SEMrush. This reveals whether you're competing against established authority sites that require substantial content investment or newer pages you can outrank. Backlink analysis should show your site's referring domain count and quality, common anchor text patterns, and which competitors' links might be worth pursuing. Finally, review rank tracking data over time to identify which pages are moving up or down, what seasonal patterns exist, and which keywords represent realistic near-term opportunities versus long-term targets requiring authority building. This complete picture—technical health, on-page quality, competitive positioning, and performance trends—gives you the foundation to build a realistic SEO strategy rather than chasing vanity metrics.